Conflux

A quick note: there are inconsistencies in this puzzle’s theme that testers were very divided on. Some didn’t care about them at all, but others felt they ruined the puzzle. I do think the theme is fun, but wanted to add this quick disclaimer first!

There's a certain two-word phrase that I've been thinking a lot about from a wordplay perspective, and so eventually I had to make a puzzle with that as the seed. It's 11-Across. Two more things about the long entries: (1) "West Coast" is also the ti...

There's a certain two-word phrase that I've been thinking a lot about from a wordplay perspective, and so eventually I had to make a puzzle with that as the seed. It's 11-Across. Two more things about the long entries: (1) "West Coast" is also the ti...

Nothing too unusual here, but I'm proud of how dense the theme is given the size. By the way, the clue for 26-Across was written by my mother; I think it's very good!